A Treatise on Astronomy (New Edition)

A foundational nineteenth-century work of popular science, by the man later hailed as the founder of the philosophy of science.

Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1792–1871) was uniquely positioned within British astronomy: son of William Herschel, discoverer of Uranus, and nephew of Caroline Herschel, a celebrated astronomer in her own right. John Herschel extended his family's scientific legacy across an extraordinarily broad range of fields, making significant contributions to mathematics, the newly emerging science of photography, and botany, alongside his astronomical work. He is regarded by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as the founder of the philosophy of science.

A Treatise on Astronomy, published in 1833 as part of the Cabinet Cyclopaedia, Dionysius Lardner's ambitious and historically significant series of general-education volumes, brought Herschel's authoritative command of astronomical science to the educated general reader, written with the same insistence on careful, unbiased observation that characterised his more technical scientific writing.

This copy has been handsomely rebound by W. Moffitt of Pitt Street, Sydney, a documented colonial-era Australian bookbinder.

New edition. Volume within Dionysius Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia series. Small octavo. viii, 422pp. Bound by W. Moffitt, Pitt Street, Sydney. Full leather with patterned cloth onlay to covers. Decorated and titled in gilt. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Engraved title page. Covers a little rubbed, corners slightly turned. Binding tight. Contents show some faint markings here and there. Generally fine throughout. A near fine copy. 

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Catalogue Number: HH000776